1. Technical Field
This application relates to a keg filling plant for filling kegs with a liquid beverage material, such as beer, wine, soft drinks, or juice. This application further relates to a handling and treatment station for the handling and treatment of kegs that are equipped with fittings, with an applicator element, a handling head, with a centering device and feed and discharge lines for handling and treatment media and/or the liquid being bottled and at least one actuator element for the valve element or elements of the fittings. A method of using a handling and treatment station for kegs is also described herein, as well as other advantageous developments and embodiments of both the station and the method of using the station.
2. Background Information
In situations where beverages or other liquid products must be handled and distributed in large quantities, e.g. in restaurants, it has been determined to be particularly advantageous to handle these products not in bottles or cans but in casks or drums. Therefore the use of kegs has numerous advantages. Kegs which may be used in conjunction with at least one possible embodiment disclosed herein are manufactured by SCHÄFER Container Systems, whose address is SCHÄFER WERKE GMBH, Postfach 1120, 57272 Neunkirchen, Federal Republic of Germany.
One major advantage of the use of kegs is that these barrel or drum-like containers, as the result of a particularly advantageous configuration of the connections for the liquid and compressed gas they contain are hermetically tight, and the contents and the interior of the container are therefore protected against contamination of all types, and primarily against contact with germs and other harmful microorganisms. The connections are combined into what are called fittings.
As a rule, kegs are handled, cleaned and refilled on an industrial scale in bottling plants, especially in the large plants of the bottled beverage industry. One example of a keg filling system is Innokeg Contikeg, manufactured by KHS Till GmbH, located at Kapellenstrasse 47-49, 65830 Kriftel, Federal Republic of Germany. An example of a control system for keg filling plants is the Innokeg InfoKeg Management System, also developed by KHS Till GmbH.
For this purpose, fully automated cleaning and bottling plants are used, in which the kegs are handled and treated on an individual machine with only one handling and treatment station, or on a large machine with a plurality of handling and treatment stations, e.g. 24-36.
The kegs are delivered empty to a delivery station of the plant and run through the cleaning and/or filling stations before they are removed at the other end of the plant, in clean and filled condition, and are then transported to the consumers.
In handling and treatment plants for kegs, it is conventional to move the kegs through the plant top-down, i.e. with the fitting facing downward, and in this orientation to also pressurize them with various handling media and/or with the liquid to be bottled and the compressed gas. The necessary connections between the interior of the kegs and the media and/or their delivery or discharge lines are thereby established by means of the keg fitting. The connection between the keg and the media line is established as follows: The keg 13 is delivered to a handling and treatment station by a suitable transport device. The step-by-step method is thereby used in practice.
During transport, the keg 13 is thereby oriented so that the fitting 14 is pointing downward. If the keg 13 is in an approximately perpendicular position and/or is oriented centrally over a handling position, the keg 13 is lowered from a raised transport position into a lower handling and treatment position, whereby it enters into a functional connection with a stationary centering device 15 and is thereby centered over and/or oriented in relation to a plunger 16. Simultaneously with the lowering into the handling position, an applicator element 17 is activated, whereupon the applicator element is pressed against the bottom of the keg to support the lowering and centering and then the application pressure necessary for the subsequent handling of the keg 13 is built up. After the keg 13 has been positioned and fixed in position, the kegs are handled and treated, whereby depending on the individual handling and treatment station, the process can be a cleaning or filling process.
For each of these handling and treatment processes, it is necessary to connect media lines with the keg or its interior, whereby the connections must be as tight and hygienic as possible, but must also be made rapidly and in a manner that protects the material. These requirements are met satisfactorily by the keg fittings that are widely used in practice.
To establish the connection of the media lines with the keg, on the handling and treatment station a handling head is provided which, in addition to the centering device 15 and the plunger 16, also has sealing elements and the delivery and/or discharge lines for the handling and treatment media, the liquid to be bottled or compressed gas to or from the handling head.
If the keg is then pressed in a sealed connection by means of the applicator element 17 against the seals that are located in the handling head, the plunger 16 is then moved by suitable actuator means from a first, low, non-engaged position into a second, higher, engaged position. During this movement, the plunger 16 opens the closures or valves that are provided on the keg fitting, and create a sealed connection with the corresponding contact surfaces, so that the handling and treatment media or the liquid being filled into the keg can be conducted into and out of the keg as desired. Once the handling or filling phase has been completed, the plunger moves into the non-engaged position, the closures of the keg fitting are closed by spring force and the content of the keg is packed hermetically tight.
In practice, partly for technical reasons and partly for reasons of intentional and desirable incompatibility, numerous keg fittings are in widespread use that differ from one another in their geometric such that each individual type of keg fitting requires, for the processing of the keg to which it is attached, at least its own plungers 16 and centering devices 15, as a result of which extensive conversion measures are necessary for each change in the type of keg or fitting being handled.
Attention must also be paid to the fact that in the beverage industry there are stringent requirements in terms of the cleanliness and safety of the cleaning and bottling process, as a result of which cleaning and/or disinfection measures may be necessary after the conversion measures that further increase the time required by and therefore also the costs entailed in such conversion measures.
These additional requirements have been found to be particularly disadvantageous in practice.